Kagan: Cable Future Bright

Residential cable revenue is expected to rise 8.6% from $108.4 billion in 2016 to $117.7 billion by 2026, fueled by a slightly improved outlook for the video business and continued growth in broadband, according to an SNL Kagan report.

Factoring in additional sales on the commercial side and total cable revenue is expected to rise from $130.57 billion in 2016 to $140.99 billion in 2026, or about 8% over the 10-year period, according to Kagan.

Kagan said several factors will drive future results: continued subscriber growth as broadband subscriptions swell by more than 8 million over the next 10 years to 71 million customers and a slowdown in the decline of video customer additions as basic video rolls are expected to decline by an annual compounded growth (CAGR) rate of 1.5% to 45.4 million by 2026, compared to 1.7% in last year’s 10-year projection. Finally, while there continues to be worries around reduced spending on multichannel video, especially around advanced services (Kagan estimates total residential video revenue will dip 0.5% over the next 10 years), advertising revenue is expected to grow at a 4.3% clip through 2026 to reach $6.3 billion.